9th place in the 3rd tier of English football

Imho...ninth / tenth is about where I thought we would be.
Our owners are very much still learning their trade. We are still playing catch up from the Con-his-way era and I still feel we are another 18 months from ridding ourselves of the financial mess that regime put us in.
Inbetween time we have seen a very obvious decline in our players and it looks like we need even more patience to see what happens next.
I have no faith we will bring anyone in this transfer period as we don't have the dosh!
What we do have is an overbloated, lopsided squad that lack the pace and physicality for this league....so its back to recruitment, which has been very poor and the chance to get rid of some of the unwanted, which may be this summer.
I would like to think this June, we have a proper sit down and redefine our goals and how we want to move forward.

 

Sorry - what action do you think they are taking to "rid ourselves of the financial mess"?

 

Have they addressed the year on year deficit? No, its as big as ever
Have they trimmed the bloated squad? No, it's bigger than ever
Have they reduced the number of coaching staff? No, its been increased
Have they improved commercial activities and revenues? No, even the luncheons have dried up
Have they reduced senior administrative staff? No, now we have the CEO role split in two and a DoF who doesn't do any actual transfers.
Are they pushing for promotion to increase on field revenues? No, we're dogshit.

What is it then that you think they *are* doing to improve the financials?

 

I think, and its only a thought....that they are trying to offload players (ie Benson, who im told is on good wages) but are finding that very difficult.
Another area I believe they are / possibly looking at is the academy.
So I think they are looking at these areas (players and academy costs) primarily but of course there are loads of areas to improve on.

 

Fair enough. But Spectemur Agendo and all that. And they've "Agendo'd" fuuck all.

 

All good points...but I do honestly believe they are tying to offload players but as yet we have no physical evidence other than Marsh out on loan.
Very frustrating at the moment and we all want answers....as I say these are my thoughts.....I would hope these questions are put to our custodians, I really don't have answers.
What I see (like you) is a club depreciating.....especially at playing level and I put that down to recruitment.

 

The academy needs looking at bit style. Those in charge surely need judging by results, and by that I mean youth players coming through, because their record has been very poor for a number of years. Maybe changes all round needed at the academy, are the present staff just too comfortable in their roles because it’s sadly lacking in producing future first team players. Big review needed going forward for me.

 

In my first season we finished 8th in the third tier of English football. That was 1960-61. The more things change, the more they stay the same?

 

Spot on!
The cost of running it, as it is versus what it produces.

 

Thatay be true.. but in life in you can look after and be on the ball with the small details then the big stuff looks after itself..

 

Totally different game now mate.. players use to have to take summer jobs to make ends meet. When they finished they had to go into other forms of employment... Not like now expecting to ride off into the sunset and live for the next forty years on 10 years earnings.

 

That’s a very good point on the financial acumen of the owners. The Crynes thought they were selling to long term custodians of the club in the shape of Conway and Chen and our 80% owners were the ones who believed the use of data would make them millions from an unfashionable provincial football club.

Not exactly great references of financial diligence for the current ownership. Probably goes some way to explaining the largesse and losses that keep accumulating.

The real concern is what happens when they realise they are simply haemorrhaging cash with absolutely no prospect of a return?

 

Decline started when ITV pulled the plug, we've been on a steady decline since barring a few promotions from league 1, cup semi and a flash in the pan Championship play off appearance.

 

How many years of decline do people need to understand just how much of a downward spiral this football club is on.[/QUOTE]
Get used to it, there's worse to come.

 

If I win the Euromillions I will buy the club and offer it in trust to the supporters club.

 

If I win more than you on the Euromillions I will overbid you, keep the club for myself, buy a striker, bring back Toby Tyke on a permanent contract, introduce heated seats in winter and get the council to open an exhibition in town 'How Kamikaze saved BFC'

 

Surely the real concern is that they haven't realised this already?

 

I don't want the Academy to disappear, but I want it to start working. I'm sure the owners do, too.

Apart from the Pre-season, and the EFL Trophy (which if we get promoted we no longer enter), is the only time we really see the fruits of the academy labour.

 

That's because of we bring through an academy player and he doesn't look like Messi after 4 minutes he's binned off to Scotland or non-league. If we sign someone from a higher league club we persevere and throw in a 4 year contract.

We won't see much from the academy while we are treating the players coming through it harder than we are the useless gits that we sign from places like cardiff or Birmingham